Exports of Türkiye's defense and aerospace industry rose 29% to nearly $3 billion in the first five months of the year, a top official said on Monday.
The defense industry, one of the booming sectors in recent years, has seen an upward momentum in sales as it ended 2024 with a record of $7.1 billion in shipments. The total exports from the sector thus broke the $5.5 billion record set earlier in 2023.
In May alone, the exports from the sector reached nearly $741.9 million, the preliminary foreign trade data from the Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM) revealed.
The head of Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB), Haluk Görgün, evaluated the export performance in the first five months of 2025 on his X account.
Görgün stated that defense and aerospace exports increased by 29% compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching $2.98 billion.
Years of investments have fueled a profound transformation in Türkiye's defense industry over the last two decades, spurred by a score of Western embargoes. The drive has aimed at reducing external dependency on Western arms through innovative engineering initiatives and domestically developed technologies.
It prompted the development of a range of homegrown air, land and marine platforms, eventually helping lower Türkiye's foreign dependency on defense from around 80% in the early 2000s to about 20% today.
"While the number of our exporting companies increases every passing day, our product composition also develops in favor of high-tech products," Görgün wrote.
"Thanks to the uninterrupted international cooperation activities we carry out as the Presidency of Defense Industries, our companies are now able to export not only to certain regions but also all over the world," he added.
"In the upcoming period, we will continue our international activities that embrace our large-scale companies, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and make exports an indicator of sustainability for the entire sector with determination. I wholeheartedly congratulate our entire defense industry family, which realized more than 3% of our country's total exports," he further said.
Türkiye's total exports reached an all-time monthly high by climbing to $24.8 billion in May.
The automotive sector maintained its leadership position with $3.9 billion in sales last month. Chemicals came in second with $2.8 billion, and electrical and electronics came in third with $1.7 billion, respectively.
